Chippawas lock selves in TD main office protest

On Nov. 3, 2016 three women locked themselves within TD’s main office in Toronto’s financial district. They demanded that TD acknowledge they are complicit in the violence against Indigenous water protectors at Standing Rock who are blocking pipeline construction (the Dakota Access pipeline) on their treaty territory.

The water protectors at Standing Rock have been facing ongoing violence from police, military and private security.

TD subsidiary TD Securities is one of the seventeen banks that has provided project-level loans to Dakota Access LLC. It has the seventh largest commitment ($360 million) out of these seventeen banks.

“While our Indigenous elders, brothers, sisters and children stand at the banks of the Cannonball River protecting the water and sacred lands under the ever present threat and inflictions of violence, we stand here today looking for answers and a statement as to why TD would allow such violence and destruction to happen to peaceful unarmed individuals,” explained Sue Lynn Manone. “Water is a right, so we will fight. Water is life, so we have to fight.”

Indigenous resistance to pipelines is not unique to North Dakota. Just today, the offices of Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr and Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Carolyn Bennett’s offices were occupied in solidarity with First Nations, such as the Tsleil-Waituth First Nation, that are opposing the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

Later this month, Chippewas of the Thames First Nations is heading to the Supreme Court of Canada to uphold the legal right of Indigenous Peoples to be consulted on energy projects such as Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline, which runs from Sarnia to Montreal.

On November 30, 2016 on unceded Algonquin territory in Ottawa, Clyde River Inuit and the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation are heading to the Supreme Court of Canada to uphold the legal right of Indigenous Peoples to be consulted on energy projects that will impact their communities.

A win at the court could be a watershed moment for the future of Indigenous rights and environmental justice. We need YOU to be there to show your support for Indigenous communities fighting on the front lines of fossil fuel extraction.